Right here in Half 7 of our Miles & Factors for Inexperienced persons sequence, we’ll proceed choices and methods relating to the redemption part of your factors journey.
In Half 6, we went over the best way to outline a “whole lot,” the best way to assess if the award flights you discover in your searches are offering you with good worth, and the best way to steadiness all this data with your personal private journey priorities and needs.
In help of your hunt for good offers, this text will dive into redemption “candy spots” to construct your information on these extremely useful and invaluable award flight choices.
By being tuned-in with current and potential candy spots, you’ll be much more nicely outfitted to make high-value redemptions and to get pleasure from your first (and second and third) enterprise class flight for near free.
Loyalty Applications & Candy Spots
As you start to analysis completely different loyalty applications to put money into, and also you construct your information on the best way to discover award flights that signify an excellent deal, probably the most necessary issues to search for in every program is their candy spots.
After we say “candy spot,” what we’re referring to is the very best approach (by way of factors or money worth) to e-book a selected flight, particularly when in comparison with different applications. To assist in giving you an excellent understanding of what a candy spot entails, we’ll go over numerous examples all through this text.
As you journey additional into Miles & Factors, realizing and leveraging candy spots inside every program will assist you to maximize your redemptions, save factors, and have some excellent experiences besides.
In a lot of our loyalty program guides, we checklist candy spots and the best way to e-book them with factors, however on this article, we’ll focus completely on just a few of our favorite applications which can be simply accessible, have glorious award pricing, and strong candy spots.
We’ll additionally offer you some perception into the best way to establish candy spots usually, which builds properly on Half 6’s lesson on “what’s an excellent deal.”
Air Canada Aeroplan
Air Canada’s Aeroplan is a flexible program that’s notably simple to entry in Canada since there are many co-branded bank cards, and since you possibly can switch your American Categorical Membership Rewards factors (MR factors) to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio.
Aeroplan additionally enjoys the advantage of over 45 airline companions, so there are redemption choices in almost all corners of the globe.
As a hybrid distance- and zone-based program, Aeroplan redemptions change into costlier the additional the overall distance of the flights in your itinerary.
Accordingly, in the event you can prepare on your flights to stay inside the first few distance bands of Aeroplan charts’ geographic zones, there are many candy spots to be discovered.
As we talked about in Half 6 of this sequence, Aeroplan makes use of a dynamic pricing construction for Air Canada redemptions, so candy spots are sometimes award flights that price as near the low finish of the factors vary as doable and fly as near the utmost variety of miles for any given distance band.
For redemptions with accomplice airways, Aeroplan makes use of mounted pricing, and the candy spots rely on award availability current within the first place, and for redemptions to numerous elements of the world.
An instance of a short-haul candy spot inside Canada is 12,500 factors for a cross-country flight in financial system, 19,000 factors for a cross-country flight in premium financial system, or 25,000 factors for a cross-country flight in enterprise class. Generally, you possibly can even discover flights for lower than that.
For a medium-haul candy spot within the Aeroplan program, you may search for alternatives within the North America to Atlantic zones chart.
Flights from Japanese Canada to Europe are inclined to measure beneath 4,000 miles, which implies that a one-way enterprise class flight might be booked for as few as 60,000 Aeroplan factors on a accomplice airline, or typically with Air Canada (if you’ll find flights on the decrease finish of the dynamic vary).
By way of long-haul candy spots, Aeroplan has just a few notable alternatives between North America and Asia.
For less than 55,000 Aeroplan factors, you may doubtlessly fly ANA enterprise class from Vancouver or Seattle to Japan.
(On the time of writing, these can solely be booked over the cellphone, so that you’ll want to search out ANA award availability on one other Star Alliance program web site (e.g., United MileagePlus), after which name Aeroplan to e-book it utilizing Aeroplan factors.)
When you’re versatile and might wait till inside a month of journey for last-minute award availability, it’s also possible to discover United Airways Polaris enterprise class to fly from San Francisco to Tahiti for 55,000 factors too.
When you’re feeling a bit extra adventurous, you need to be conscious of the so-called “Asia 3” candy spot on the “Between North America and Pacific zones” chart, which refers back to the third distance band on the chart.
Leveraging the third distance band on this chart provides you as much as 11,000 miles to fly between North America and wherever in Asia or the South Pacific, which is an exceedingly beneficiant distance for the related factors vary. By conserving your flight distance inside this band, you’ll pay simply 87,500 Aeroplan factors to fly in enterprise class with accomplice airways.
This implies which you could fly from North America to Australia over the Pacific, or take the good distance round to Asia by flying by Europe or the Center East, and also you’ll nonetheless pay simply 87,500 factors (or typically much less, if dynamic pricing skews in a beneficial path).
Moreover, in the event you’d wish to discover a brand new nation or metropolis alongside the best way, you possibly can add a stopover for simply Aeroplan 5,000 factors extra.
For these and lots of different causes, Aeroplan is extensively thought-about to be top-of-the-line loyalty applications accessible, particularly in the event you’re keen to place the time in to find out about the way it works and the various candy spots that lie inside.
British Airways Govt Membership
One other of our favorite applications is British Airways Govt Membership.
This program is kind of accessible in Canada since you possibly can simply earn British Airways Avios by the RBC® British Airways Visa Infinite† or by transferring RBC Avion factors or American Categorical MR factors at a 1:1 ratio.
Avios factors are versatile factors that may assist you to entry award flights inside the oneworld alliance.
There are a selection of wonderful candy spots inside the British Airways loyalty program, which largely contain continuous flights. That’s as a result of British Airways makes use of additive award pricing, which implies that you pay for every section that you simply e-book.
One candy spot in this system reveals up once you redeem factors for short-haul flights inside Europe (on British Airways or Iberia), inside Asia (on Cathay Pacific or Japan Airways), and inside Australia (on Qantas Airways).
For instance, flying from London to Rome is available in at 11,750 Avios plus $1 (all figures in CAD) in taxes and charges. You possibly can additionally select to pay extra in money and fewer in Avios, since British Airways lets you customise your redemptions.
A singular characteristic of the British Airways loyalty program is that there are a number of loyalty applications (Aer Lingus AerClub, Iberia Plus, Qatar Airways Privilege Membership, Finnair Plus, Vueling Membership, and British Airways Govt Membership) that use the identical foreign money (Avios), and you may immediately convert them from one “flavour” to a different at 1:1 ratio.
This characteristic lets you entry candy spots inside every one of many above airways’ loyalty applications.
Most notably, the transferable Avios characteristic opens up entry to probably the most sought-after candy spots – Qatar Airways Qsuites.
By transferring factors to Qatar Airways Privilege Membership, you may entry the next redemption candy spots on this planet’s finest enterprise class:
- North America to Doha: 70,000 Avios
- North America to elsewhere within the Center East: 75,000 Avios
- North America to South East Asia: 95,000 Avios
One other candy spot instance that may be simply accessed due to the flexibility to switch Avios between completely different flavours is with Iberia Airways.
By transferring Avios to Iberia Plus, you possibly can e-book a one-way enterprise class flight from the Japanese US to Madrid for under 34,000 Avios.
The flexibility to switch Avios additionally permits you to make the most of reserving award flights with airways which have taxes and charges which can be decrease than these charged by different airways.
For instance, in the event you have been to e-book a one-way enterprise class flight from Finland to North America utilizing Finnair Avios, it might price 62,500 Avios, plus $140 or so in taxes and charges.
When you have been to e-book the identical flight utilizing British Airways Avios, the taxes and charges would soar as much as round $1,400.
That implies that the little further step of transferring your Avios can prevent actually a thousand {dollars} or extra.
It’s additionally necessary to notice that there are sometimes switch bonuses at play once you transfer your factors from RBC Avion or Amex MR factors to British Airways Govt Membership.
By timing your factors switch, you possibly can leverage these bonuses to successfully e-book your award flight for much less.
Air France KLM Flying Blue
The Air France KLM Flying Blue program is a bit more durable to entry in Canada because the switch charge from American Categorical MR factors is 1:0.75 and the one co-branded bank card in Canada is the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard®.
Flying Blue makes use of a dynamic pricing mannequin, so the price of a route can change from day after day; nevertheless, though this makes the costs unpredictable, the profit to this mannequin is that each seat on a flight might be booked with Flying Blue miles.
Flying Blue additionally harmonized all award pricing between Europe and North America in October 2023, which implies that an extended routing from Vancouver to Istanbul by way of Amsterdam shall be priced in the identical approach as a a lot shorter continuous flight from Toronto to Paris.
Regardless of being a bit tough to earn in Canada, Flying Blue remains to be a wonderful program with some nice candy spots.
Particularly, Flying Blue presents the next “beginning at” charges for flights from North America to Europe, that are amongst the perfect within the enterprise:
- Economic system: 20,000 Flying Blue miles
- Premium financial system: 35,000 Flying Blue miles
- Enterprise class: 50,000 Flying Blue miles
When you’re capable of rating any of those flights at this low finish of the dynamic pricing vary, you’ll have captured a candy spot (and a wonderful journey to Europe).
Flying Blue additionally stands out amongst loyalty applications in that it presents month-to-month Promo Rewards which give a 25–50% low cost on the already aggressive award charges.
When you’re eager about studying extra in regards to the Flying Blue program, its candy spots, and the month-to-month Promo Rewards, we preserve up to date guides on nearly all the main airline loyalty applications.
In every information, we dive into the loyalty program’s finest candy spots to assist spotlight key methods so that you can get glorious worth out of your factors.
Honourable Mentions
Along with the preferred candy spots listed above, there are just a few extra that you need to be conscious of as you proceed your journey with miles and factors.
Reserving WestJet Flights with Delta SkyMiles
When you’re planning on reserving a flight with WestJet utilizing factors, your first intuition may be to have a look at WestJet’s personal loyalty program, WestJet Rewards.
Whilst you can actually e-book any WestJet flight utilizing WestJet {dollars}, the reality is that there’s no strategy to get outsized worth from this loyalty program. Actually, the easiest way to e-book WestJet flights with factors might come as a little bit of a shock.
To entry an incredible WestJet candy spot, you’ll have to make the most of the WestJet and Delta Air Strains partnership. By means of this partnership you possibly can earn and redeem every airways’ miles and factors on the opposite’s flights.
Moreover, the Delta SkyMiles loyalty program is a switch accomplice with American Categorical Membership Rewards, and factors might be transferred at a 1:0.75 ratio.
With Delta SkyMiles, you’ll pay a hard and fast worth of 12,500 SkyMiles for any WestJet routing in Canada or the USA.
For instance, you’ll pay simply 12,500 SkyMiles (or 16,667 American Categorical MR factors with the switch ratio considered) to fly from Vancouver to Toronto, Calgary to Atlanta, Toronto to Los Angeles, and so forth.
When you have been to e-book the identical Vancouver to Toronto flight proven above with WestJet {dollars}, you’d have to redeem at the least 225 WestJet {dollars}.
With out going into the trivia, suffice it to say that it’s a lot simpler to earn sufficient Delta SkyMiles to e-book WestJet flights than it’s to earn sufficient WestJet {dollars}.
Money Candy Spots Exist, Too
As we talked about earlier on this sequence, it’s all the time a good suggestion to check the associated fee in miles and factors with the associated fee in money since typically it makes extra sense to pay money than to redeem factors.
Considered one of our favorite examples of that is reserving Emirates First Class, which is likely one of the most sought-after aviation merchandise on the market.
When you concentrate on the Dom Perignon Champagne, limitless caviar, personal suite, and even having the ability to take a bathe within the sky, you could assume a flight like this is able to price a small fortune.
Whereas it’s actually true that long-haul flights in Emirates First Class can price upwards of $10,000, you may be shocked to be taught that you possibly can e-book this expertise for lower than $2,000, with out utilizing factors.
Emirates has numerous fifth-freedom flights between cities everywhere in the world. These are usually shorter flights; nevertheless, additionally they supply the identical expertise that you simply’d get with longer flights.
For instance, you possibly can fly in Emirates First Class between Bangkok and Hong Kong for lower than $2,000 round-trip. Whereas that’s so much to pay for a pair of quick flights, it’s additionally one of many least expensive methods to get pleasure from top-of-the-line First Class experiences on the market.
In complete, you’d get round six hours of flying time to eat as a lot caviar and sip on as a lot costly Champagne as you presumably can, and also you’d additionally have the ability to benefit from the thrill of showering at 36,000 toes on each the flights.
In fact, there are much more candy spots in these and different applications, in addition to many different money candy spots that you simply’ll uncover alongside your points-collecting journey. Your job is to now set forth and immerse your self on this planet of Miles & Factors to get out of it greater than what you set in.
Preserve Versatile Factors Versatile
Earlier on this sequence, we checked out why versatile factors matter, and largely, it’s for the sake of diversification.
As a normal rule, it’s finest to maintain your factors as versatile as doable. This implies holding factors in applications that can help you switch these factors to a number of different airline loyalty applications as wanted.
In Canada, the 2 versatile factors applications are American Categorical Membership Rewards and RBC Avion.
With versatile factors applications, when you’ve discovered a flight that you really want primarily based by yourself journey objectives, you possibly can then switch your factors over to your related loyalty account for quick use.
For instance, when looking for award flights utilizing the applications we talked about above, you would possibly solely discover availability in a single program for the dates that you really want.
By conserving your factors in versatile applications like RBC Avion and American Categorical Membership Rewards, you possibly can rapidly and simply switch your factors from the one program to the one with the flight availability somewhat than being restricted to a singular program.
That is particularly necessary as a result of loyalty applications are continually altering, and the devaluation of airline redemption choices is just about assured over the long-term.
When you put all of your eggs in a single loyalty basket, you run the chance of shedding worth; nevertheless, by conserving a steadiness of versatile factors round, you possibly can assist defend towards these unavoidable shifts and transfer your factors to the perfect basket at the perfect time.
Provided that there are fairly just a few loyalty applications and a good variety of candy spots to select from, in the event you’re ever on the lookout for assist to nail down the perfect deal or in the event you’d similar to some assist determining which candy spots are finest on your particular location and journey goals, our educated Factors Consultants can be very happy to assist!
Conclusion
Loyalty program candy spots are the perfect methods to leverage your factors for max worth.
As you look to make your first large redemption (or your hundredth), realizing in regards to the candy spots might help you get essentially the most out of your hard-earned factors.
We hope you’re feeling much more outfitted on your Miles & Factors journey and that you simply really feel like you’ve the information to make an informed redemption determination.
Within the subsequent and ultimate a part of this sequence, we’ll have a look at the best way to benefit from your corporation class flight redemption when you’re able to depart!
